Students at Westlake MS in Broomfield build prosthetic arm that wins a trip to MESA nationals

Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement, or MESA, is a nonprofit organization that aims to encourage students to prepare for college in math, engineering or science fields, especially girls, minorities or students who are economically disadvantaged.

A team of tech-loving eighth-graders at Westlake Middle School are on their way to a national competition after creating a prosthetic arm that can pick up and move objects.

The team, made up of four Westlake students, dreamed up a sophisticated model of a prosthetic arm to compete in the statewide MESA, or Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement, competition earlier this month at the University of Denver.

Their design wowed judges and earned the team a bronze and four gold medals, including a gold for their overall project.

They will now take their prosthetic arm — a structure that uses a carbon fiber tube, electrical "fingers" and a scoop-like mechanism for picking up objects — to a national competition in June in Portland, Ore.

The team members, who all hope to pursue careers in science or engineering in the future, said they redesigned their entire project over the past year to make it more lightweight, more efficient and easier to operate.

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"It's really huge for us that we've gotten this far," said Maile Harris, a member of the team. "It didn't sink in at first. When got on the bus, we just said, 'oh my God, did we just win?'"

MESA is a nonprofit organization that aims to encourage students to prepare for college in math, engineering or science fields, especially girls, minorities or students who are economically disadvantaged. The MESA program serves students in preschool through high school.

The statewide MESA challenge asked middle and high school teams to build a working prosthetic arm, which was tested by judges during the competition.

The arm had to complete certain tasks, such as moving household items and throwing different types of balls to test its accuracy.

Teams also had to write detailed technical reports about their arms and give oral presentations and make posters about their projects.

Gabriella Finochio, a Westlake MESA team member, said the "arm" her team created doesn't look like a typical human hand. Instead, it looks like a black tube with robotic-looking wires and two hinged plastic "fingers" attached. The device slides onto a person's arm and is controlled electronically with a controller the user can press with his or her chin.

It was the only model in the competition that operates electronically, she said.

The Westlake team's success at the state competition means it is now headed for the national competition June 19-22 in Portland.

The team is applying for MESA funding to pay for the trip.

Westlake team members will be four of about 79 students competing in June. State competitions, however, draw thousands of students who vie for the chance to compete at a national level, according to a news release from MESA of Oregon.

Last week, the team met to talk about what they will do to make their presentation even better for the national competition.

Three of the four members, Harris, Finochio and Riley Powers, sat together in a science lab to brainstorm ideas about the upcoming national competition. Camden Brown, the fourth teammate, joined them on speakerphone because he was home sick.

Brian Laird, a science teacher at Westlake and the MESA team's mentor, said he was impressed with the way the team took initiative to create and improve its prosthetic arm. The group meets early in the morning before the school bell rings to streamline their designs and plans, he said.

The team started working on the prosthetic arm challenge in seventh grade, but the design didn't hold up to expectations and broke in a few places.

After last year's competition, students regrouped to create a new design that wowed the judges this time around, Laird said.

"Last year's design looked like something a kid would make, and this year's design is much, much different," he said.

Laird counseled the team on small things, such as what the group should wear to look more professional, but the middle schoolers had bigger ideas on how to polish their presentation and make sure the arm was as efficient as possible.

"I asked them if they needed help, but ... they came to me with a whole plan of what they would do differently and how they would change the (model.) They did this all on their own, and that's really admirable," he said.

Team members said they are especially proud of their decision to use a sophisticated carbon fiber tube as part of their design — a material team member Camden Brown bought online after researching its lightweight but sturdy properties.

Laird said the team did everything it could to make its design shine. He is not surprised the team members want to pursue science, medical or engineering careers.

ARM IN ACTION: Riley Powers, left and Camden Brown demonstrate the prosthetic arm they and Westlake team members made for the statewide MESA competition. The team took top honors and are heading to the national competition in June in Oregon. (David R. Jennings / Broomfield Enterprise)

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